Thread: Vocabulary

I always carry a couple of pencils, two in case one breaks, pencils because they don’t leak in the pocket and because they can be rubbed out.

Rubbed out? Yes, because when I am reading and come across a word I am unfamiliar with, or unsure of the exact definition of, I make a note of the page number in the front of the book and a small mark on the page. Later, at home, I look them up then re-read the context, then I rub it all out so the next reader does not have to put up with it. So why the thread? Well I thought it would be good to share my new words.

Synecdoche;
A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword)


Ellipsis;
The omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or be understood from contextual clues.
A set of dots indicating such an omission.

Homiletic;
With an ‘s’ homiletics is the art of preaching. From context “... homilectic equations such as life: a journey, death: sleep ...” I take it to mean ‘to do with preaching.

Orache;
A weed with spinach like edible leaves.

Skirrets;
Plant sometimes grown for its edible, sweet tasting, roots.

Act of attaintment, or bill of attainder;
Finding a person guilty by act of parliament, or a bill presented to parliament to be voted on for such an act, an alternative to a jury, usually used for high treason.

What have you come across lately?

I just learned a new one today, courtesy of Writ using it in the debate forum:

Extranality - A consequence of an economic activity that is experienced by unrelated third parties.

It's pretty rare that I run across a word that I don't know. Not because my vocabulary is that big, but because most people shy away from using obscure words. I did find one last night in the David Eddings book I'm reading.

Recalcitrant:

Adjective:

Having an obstinately uncooperative attitude toward authority

I actually have a few documents on my computer and some in a notebook of just definitions. I read a lot by Darwin, Dawkins, and other sceintist that used a lot of words that went over my head.

Originally Posted by Olly Buckle

Synecdoche;
A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword)

Thanks for this one, Olly, because I can use that in my upcoming English Language A level exam on Language Change. Plus, I love the technical terms for Language change as it is.

Here are a couple that I doubt are in everyone's common vocabulary:

Amelioration;
The name given to the process by which a word takes on a different, more positive, meaning than it had previously, thereby gaining status. For example, pretty once meant sly, whereas now it means attractive.

Pejoration;
Where a word takes on a different, more negative, meaning than it had previously, thereby losing status. For example, idiot once meant private citizen, whereas now it is someone who is being stupid.

There are other semantic shift terms, but they are pretty self explanatory (Weakening, Narrowing, Broadening).

Here's one that I didn't know until fairly recently:

Obstreperous;
Noisy and difficult to control: "the boy is cocky and obstreperous".

Rebarbative :-
I thought it was going to be something to do with beards, and it is, but it means repellent. unattractive and comes from aa word meaning two men squaring up face to face, or beard to beard.

Inveigle - persuade by deception or flattery.

Didactic - in the manner of teaching, especially so as to be patronising.

Malefactor - someone who commits a crime or some other wrong.

Plenipotentiary - having full power to take independent action.

interlarded - to insert something foreign into: interlarded the narrative with witty remarks

Didactic - in the manner of teaching, especially so as to be patronising.

That's familiar, Sam. I have been called that before.

Originally Posted by Olly Buckle

That's familiar, Sam. I have been called that before.

By the bye, there's a great film called Synecdoche, New York, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. It's definitely a 'what the bloody hell did I just watch?' film.

Eschatology: The study of the final things, death, the end of the world etc.

Enthymeme: An argument of which part is missing, eg. ‘With a name like Oliver I am bound to want more.’ The whole argument would be “Oliver Twist wanted more, people with the same name want the same thing, my name is the same as his, therefore I want more

Samizdat: Self publishing, from a movement in the old USSR that copied forbidden books by hand and distributed them

Umbrageous literally , giving shade, figuratively someone who is inclined to take umbrage [offence]

Apothegm: A concise maxim or saying

Kerygma: Preaching, stating religious truths.

Enargia; An extremely vivid description, usually visual.

Strophic: In verses which go with the same melody; in the form of the first of a pair of verses whose form is repeated.

eupeptic, having a good digestive system, the air of health and vitality that comes from that.

Originally Posted by philistine

interlarded - to insert something foreign into: interlarded the narrative with witty remarks

Sounds like an Americanisation of the simple larded, why use two syllables when we could use four - Derived from the simple act of adding lard by inserting it under the skin of meat about to be roasted.

At work I was once asked to rewrite a letter to a client, my boss told me that I had used several five and 2 six syllable words and that he wouldn't understand it, such is modern education.

I am a great fan of the late Peter O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise series of books in which Modesty and Willy Garvin play a word game; each uses a new word in context and the other, the next day has to use a sentence which demonstrates that they had noticed the word, found its meaning and understood how to use it correctly - Strikes me that it would be a fun game between literate friends; it is how I learned the word palimpsest.

When BASIC was the computer language de nos jours, the word concatenation was common parlance among the cognoscenti; chuck it into a sentence nowadays and you get a blank look. Our last hope for broadening the vocabulary of the general populace, Terry Wogan, has retired from the airwaves we are untethered, cast adrift with only the anodyne for company...

"concatenation" Why not simply say linked up?
People have been railing against the deterioration of language and education since the year dot, generally old men, this is from Swift,

"My Lord I do here, in the name of all the learned and polite persons of the nation, complain to Your Lordship as First Minister, that our language is extremely imperfect; that its daily improvements are by no means in proportion to its daily corruptions; that the prtenders to polish and rwefine ithave chieflymultiplied abuses and absurdities; and that in many instances it offends against every part of grammar.

I would be willing to bet there were people saying "That Chaucer and all his modern stuff, give me Beowulf any day."

Anyway, here is one that I just found this morning,

Feck

No nothing to do with Father Ted in this context, it was John Buchan, it is from Scots and means 'The greater part'. "We'll leave the feck behind" was the context. Apparently from the same root as 'effect' and 'feckless'.

Originally Posted by Olly Buckle

"concatenation" Why not simply say linked up?

Because sometimes you need a noun instead of an adjective
Because maybe you already used the word "linked" earlier in the paragraph and you need something else
Because it's got a good rhythm and you can dance to it
Because why not?

I like big words.